A Fallen HomeKin

PART XXV

If there were such a thing as too many cook-ys, Fralith had reached it. He slumped back in his chair, licking crumbs off his fingers, and patting his stomach contentedly, sweetness buzzing in his mouth and head. His belly was mostly filled with cook-ys and something that tasted close to DareJump goat milk. All good stuff.

There were other things on the table that could be eaten, but he'd focused on the cook-ys and left them for the others. They should eat something after all. Burping, he wiped his mouth and looked up at the three adults at the table. They'd chatted while he devoured the plate of chock-o-let cook-ys, and looked at him often, like right now.

"Excuse you," BlueShirt said at the same time Tim remarked, "Oh, that was a big one."

The woman snorted and shook her head at the two, smiling and making a hand gesture. "Two ends of the spectrums there."

They chuckled, evidently finding something amusing. Fralith shrugged to himself and contented himself to watch. Now that his belly was full and his head buzzing with head-butting sweetness hinchillas, he was ready to figure things out. And not freak out. For a little while.

Flicking his gaze to the woman, he tilted his head to the side, eyeing her with pursed lips. She...reminded him of someone. Someone with ebony black hair, sharp nose, and soft eyes. Well...not quite all of that. The person he reminded him of was...a little different.

SecondHomer? No, she didn't have the right build, posture, or...look. Rivierian? He hadn't seen enough of them, though they were stockier, as far as he could remember. She was definitely not Kenverite — no blonde hair, mean, square face, broad shoulders, and yellow eyes. That couldn't be it.

Maybe...a Kenverite? He'd never seen one of the idigenous people of Kentytii, but he'd read of them. They were...not always blonde and...curly haired? Beep! It'd been too long since he'd read it.

Huffing and flicking his fingers, he chewed his lip, reaching back in his memories and feeling around. It was hard — the sweetness hinchillas kept butting his hands, making him lose any possible leads. He growled inwardly, glaring at the hinchilas. Stop butting me! I love you, but I don't want to go flying!

The sweetness hinchilas burred and butted him. Sighing, he rubbed his chest. This was almost as hard and frustrating as trying to find a bird through a dropped feather. He had the proof of existence and clues, but he couldn't find the rest of the beeping bird.

Who did the woman remind him of? Someone with black hair and those eyes. Except...those eyes had been wider. Wider and...Wide eyes staring at him, moonlight reflecting off the whites. Fear. Thunder. A high pitched scream.

The girl and the ThunderObject man.

The woman reminded him of the girl. The woman looked like the girl. Or, well, the girl looked like the woman. How? Why? The only way possible would be if...the woman was the girl's mother.

Fralith stilled, breath slowing. Mother. She was the girl's mother. Why was..why was she here? Why would the girl's mother be here, in this house? Why were they in this house? What was special about it? Unless...if the woman was the girl's daughter and she was here, did that mean...this was the same house? Was one of these rooms the room? Was the girl right here right now?

"...he seems calm enough now. Let's start with the introductions, huh, Brave Bud?"

He blinked hard, pulling his attention back to the table. Huh? What? Who was—

BlueShirt smiled at him and waved a hand at the woman. "Brave Bud, this is my wife, Ruth. Roo-th. Ruth."

The woman put her hand on her chest, nodding. "Ruth. I'm Ruth. Roo-th. You can call me Mom, though. Mom. M-ouh-m. Mom."